Don’t Look Now: Kings Claim Best Record in NHL

That happened. And you’ll note which team is at the bottom. The ‘winner’ of the Kovalchuk Sweepstakes, the New Jersey Devils, who are currently boasting the lowest goals for in the league. And it’s not close. Especially when you calculate it by average: 1.7 goals per game. 29th: 2.33 (Nashville)

If proudly proclaiming these facts (which will surely change throughout the year) isn’t bold enough, here’s another one:

Jonathan Quick is the best goaltender in the NHL.

OK, that may be tough to prove. The stats are not helping or hurting him in either direction, as he is tied for the league lead in wins (6) and is in the top 7 in both Goals Against Average and Save Percentage.

More significantly, the only game he has lost has been the only game the Kings have played without both Drew Doughty and Matt Greene, other than at the end of the Carolina game. In both those games, the team’s defense has looked suspect at best.

Excuses aside, Quick has looked confident, poised, and as Jim Fox said tonight, “like he has something to prove.”

In Quick’s mind, that something is perhaps that he is the starting netminder for the Kings, and he isn’t going anywhere.

So maybe he isn’t THE best goaltender in the NHL right this second, but I predict that I will not be the last person to include him in the conversation this season.